Revolutionary leadership requires faith incompatible with clear social analysis

Evidence

The world in which the leaders of the proletariat grow up is not an academy but a series of struggles in factories and trade unions, disciplinary measures, sordid arguments both inside and outside of political parties, prison sentences and illegality … The career of the revolutionary does not advance through banquets and honorary titles, interesting research and professorial salaries, but through misery, disgrace, ingratitude, and imprisonment towards an uncertainty which only an almost superhuman faith can penetrate … It is quite possible that revolutionary faith, at moments like the present, is virtually inconsistent with great awareness of the realities, it could even be the case that the qualities necessary to lead the proletarian party are found at the moment among men and women who are not exactly of the finest character. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 196 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Revolutionary faith can be incompatible with clear awareness of reality — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 196; Revolutionary regimes attract blind faith, not grounded trust; Revolutionary leaders who mistrust the people become oppressors themselves — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 528 (+2 more)

Related

• Revolutionary faith can be incompatible with clear awareness of reality (similarity 0.91)

Broader Connections

• Revolutionary faith can be incompatible with clear awareness of reality #corroborates (0.93) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 196
• The Leader’s infallibility structures the movement, not the truth of his words #expands (0.80)
• Revolutionary regimes attract blind faith, not grounded trust #expands (0.78)
• The Leader’s rightness is unfalsifiable because its test lies beyond contemporaries’ reach #expands (0.75)
• Revolutionary leaders who mistrust the people become oppressors themselves #expands (0.72) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 528